In this segment from Colonial House, Colonists and the Passamaquoddy people encounter each other for the first time.

This collection uses primary sources to explore religion during the Colonial period of US History. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

In this lesson, students read advertisements placed in the Virginia Gazette by slave owners for the return of self-emancipating enslaved people, then summarize the information and use it to make inferences about slavery in 18th-century Virginia.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the motivations and realities behind life in the American colonies. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This 1767 engraving, published in Great Britain and attributed to Benjamin Franklin, warned of the consequences of alienating the colonies through enforcement of the Stamp Act. The act was a 1765 attempt by Parliament to increase revenue from the colonies to pay for troops and colonial administration, and it required colonists to purchase stamps for many documents and printed items, such as land titles, contracts, playing cards, books, newspapers, and advertisements. Because it affected almost everyone, the act provoked widespread hostility. The cartoon depicts Britannia, surrounded by her amputated limbs marked Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England as she contemplates the decline of her empire. Franklin, who was in England representing the colonists' claims, arranged to have the image printed on cards that he distributed to members of Parliament.

Although Thomas Nast was an ardent supporter of equal rights, he often resorted to racial and ethnic stereotypes in his Harper's Weekly cartoons. Questioning the actions of some southern black Republican legislators, in the cartoon on the left Nast drew the figure of "Columbia," symbol of the nation, chiding: "You are aping the lowest whites. If you disgrace your race in this way you had better take back seats." Nast got a taste of his own medicine in this answering cartoon (right) on the cover of the New York Daily Graphic, entitled "I Wonder How Harper's Artist Likes To Be Offensively Caricatured Himself?" Such consciousness in the press about offensive imagery would not last long. By the 1880s, with the end of a national commitment to black equality, racist stereotypes characterized most published cartoons and illustrations.

The lesson helps students understand the background and impact of the Columbian Exchange both now and in the past.

To read a review of standards alignment, go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WFF3rHfOobKe3bBZ8o9_WDJ9FQbT6Wah/edit

A 2018 TIme Magazine Article that explores the evidence for early European Exploration throughout North America.

The National Industrial Recovery Act, passed in 1933, was a New Deal program intended to strengthen the economy by regulating production and prices; it also included a provision protecting the right of workers to form unions. One odd place in which a union drive emerged was among newspaper reporters, a group that had long resisted unionization efforts, in part because of their status as "professional" and "white-collar" workers. Newspaper columnist Heywood Broun was a sportswriter who gradually turned to writing book reviews and personal essays; in the 1930s Broun became a member of the Socialist Party and ran unsuccessfully for Congress. On August 7, 1933, Broun published this famous column calling--with some ambivalence--for a journalists' union. The combination of Broun's column, the intransigence of publishers, and the general labor unrest sweeping the nation led to a nationwide flurry of activity among newspaper people, culminating in the December 1933 formation of the American Newspaper Guild (ANG).

William A. Rogers depicts Capital and Labor as evenly matched with Commerce a beleaguered referee on a 1901 cover of Harper's Weekly. Variations on this theme frequently appeared in the Progressive Era's mainstream press. Commerce alternated with other allegorical figures like the nation" or the "public

The United States experienced extensive economic and geographical expansion during the 1840s, as the spirit of Manifest Destiny drove Americans west across the North American continent to exert their influence over new places and peoples. Influenced by this expansionary philosophy, political leaders sought to expand American trade relationships worldwide. One of the first targets of this campaign was to open diplomatic and trade relations with isolationist Japan, which had been closed to western traders for centuries. In 1852, President Millard Fillmore ordered Commodore Matthew C. Perry to lead an expedition to secure Japanese trade and access to Japan’s ports for American ships.

President Lyndon Johnson formed an 11-member National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in July 1967 to explain the riots that plagued cities each summer since 1964 and to provide recommendations for the future. The Commission's 1968 report, informally known as the Kerner Report, concluded that the nation was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." Unless conditions were remedied, the Commission warned, the country faced a "system of 'apartheid'" in its major cities. The Kerner report delivered an indictment of "white society" for isolating and neglecting African Americans and urged legislation to promote racial integration and to enrich slums--primarily through the creation of jobs, job training programs, and decent housing. President Johnson, however, rejected the recommendations. In April 1968, one month after the release of the Kerner report, rioting broke out in more than 100 cities following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. In the following excerpt from the Kerner Report, the Commission assessed media coverage of the riots and criticized newspapers and television for failing to adequately report on African-American life or to employ more than a token number of blacks. In 1998, 30 years after the issuance of the Report, former Senator and Commission member Fred R. Harris co-authored a study that found the racial divide had grown in the ensuing years with inner-city unemployment at crisis levels. Opposing voices argued that the Commission's prediction of separate societies had failed to materialize due to a marked increase in the number of African Americans living in suburbs.

In 1919, during the post-World War I "Red Scare," the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protection of free speech was not applicable in circumstances in which there was a "clear and present danger" that "substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent" would occur as a result of that speech. In 1940, Congress passed the Smith Act, making illegal the advocacy of overthrowing state or national governments. Although the Act was not used against members of the Communist Party during World War II, 11 Communist Party leaders were convicted under the Act in 1949 following the build up of Cold War tensions. In the following opening statements of that trial, the U.S. prosecuting attorney, John F. X. McGohey and the general secretary of the Communist Party, Eugene Dennis, offered widely divergent descriptions of the Party's goals. The Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdicts in 1951, ruling that government action against the defendants was required under the "clear and present danger" test. The ruling further argued that the Party, which was "in the very least ideologically attuned" with Communist countries, had formed "a highly organized conspiracy," that created the present danger. In subsequent years, Congress passed additional anti-Communist laws, and courts obtained 93 convictions of Party members. After the liberal-leaning Warren Court's 1956 ruling that mere advocacy of revolution was insufficient grounds to convict, the U.S. government ended their prosecution of Communists for Party membership alone.

The importance of community helpers is a building block of civics understanding. In this episode, children investigate who community helpers are, and how they have changed over time through exploration of a rich photograph (from the Library of Congress) of a man delivering ice to a schoolhouse in 1899.

Children explore the photograph by revealing it in sections, observing the details they find (See), and working with in-game character Ella to figure out what jobs the helpers are doing. Children collect elements of the photograph to their journal, and use what they have collected to help them decide what the jobs are (Think), and then to connect those jobs with community helpers today (Wonder)

Francis Daniel Pastorius arrived in Pennsylvania in 1683, commissioned by the Frankfort Land Company and a group of German merchants to obtain 15,000 acres of land for a settlement in the new colony of Pennsylvania. Pastorius, well educated in European universities, reported back to his friends in Germany. This report was later published as Positive Information From America, concerning the Country of Pennsylvania by a German who Traveled There (1684), a promotional tract to encourage other Germans to immigrate. Pastorius found the journey to be difficult but the prospects attractive. He remarked notably upon the ethnic and religious complexity of the colony. Pennsylvania attracted many colonists seeking religious freedom and communal prosperity. Pastorius went on to lead settlement of Mennonites and Quakers at Germantown.

Four Presidents called Illinois home – Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. Each presided over the country at a unique time in U.S. history, and this can be seen in the messages they communicated to the nation in their inaugural addresses. All four were reelected to a second term in office. Analysis of each president’s 1st and 2nd inaugural addresses provides an opportunity to compare and contrast the priorities, goals and intentions he outlined, as well as how the nation may have been changing at that time.

Reframing American History is a resource guide for kindergarten through twelfth grade teachers, curriculum specialists and administrators.  The attached resources support the development of an accurate, integrative, and comprehensive social studies and history curriculum model that focuses on the critical role African Americans played in our country’s development with a focus on three goals.Reframing American History is a resource guide for kindergarten through twelfth grade teachers, curriculum specialists and administrators.  The attached resources support the development of an accurate, integrative, and comprehensive social studies and history curriculum model that focuses on the critical role African Americans played in our country’s development with a focus on three goals. Goal 1 focuses on easy access to a diverse group of vetted resources in support of a social studies curriculum for grades K through 12 that is inclusive and developmentally appropriate; one that highlights the experiences and contributions of African Americans since they are integral to the origins and development of the United States as well as Wisconsin. Goal 2 ensures that Wisconsin teachers (those in training as well as those currently teaching in the classroom) will have essential historical knowledge of African Americans, their history, and experiences as they relate to our country’s development. Evidenced-based instructional methods and materials will be made available to teachers to support their ability to foster their students’ learning in a positive and nurturing manner.  Goal 3 focuses on ensuring that all Wisconsin public school students graduate with the essential knowledge and skills that will prepare them to work and live in our racially and culturally diverse world. Fortified with this knowledge, they will be able to create an equitable and just society. 

Mae West spent her career on the stage and screen skirting--and sometimes transgressing--the boundaries of sexual and moral propriety. In 1926 and 1927, she outraged some critics (and landed herself in jail) with two sensational Broadway productions, Sex (a play she wrote about a Montreal prostitute, in which she also starred) and The Drag (a "homosexual comedy-drama" that she wrote and staged). In 1928, New York police arrested her again, this time for her play about a troupe of female impersonators, Pleasure Man. In 1932, she brought her brand of ribald humor to the movies. West's move from Broadway to Hollywood was surprising, given the substantially tighter moral scrutiny under which the film industry operated. Adopted in 1930 by the Association of Motion Picture Producers, the Motion Picture Production Code, excerpted below, spelled out in detail what was and was not permissible in the nation's most popular form of entertainment.

President Lyndon Johnson formed an 11-member National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in July 1967 to explain the riots that plagued cities each summer since 1964 and to provide recommendations for the future. The Commission's 1968 report, informally known as the Kerner Report, concluded that the nation was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." Unless conditions were remedied, the Commission warned, the country faced a "system of 'apartheid'" in its major cities. The Kerner report delivered an indictment of "white society" for isolating and neglecting African Americans and urged legislation to promote racial integration and to enrich slums--primarily through the creation of jobs, job training programs, and decent housing. President Johnson, however, rejected the recommendations. In April 1968, one month after the release of the Kerner report, rioting broke out in more than 100 cities following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. In the following statements to joint Congressional hearings on urban employment problems in May and June of 1968, two academics related their findings regarding overt and institutionalized discrimination. They further argued that there were no simple solutions for overcoming the racial divide.

When it began publication in 1924 Bernarr Macfadden's New York Graphic claimed to inaugurate a new brand of journalism. Its brazen exploitation of the sensational; focus on crime, gossip, sex, and scandals; and utter disregard for the truth set a model for tabloid" journalism to this day. The Graphic 's inventiveness extended to publication of "composographs